Here are some excerpts from the fantastic essay by Daniel F. Craviotto, Jr., an orthopedic surgeon from Santa Barbara, California:

“In my 23 years as a practicing physician, I’ve learned that the only thing that matters is the doctor-patient relationship. How we interact and treat our patients is the practice of medicine. . . . So when do we say damn the mandates and requirements from bureaucrats who are not in the healing profession? When do we stand up and say we are not going to take it any more?

I don’t know about other physicians but I am tired—tired of the mandates, tired of outside interference, tired of anything that unnecessarily interferes with the way I practice medicine. No other profession would put up with this kind of scrutiny and coercion from outside forces. The legal profession would not. The labor unions would not. We as physicians continue to plod along and take care of our patients while those on the outside continue to intrude and interfere with the practice of medicine.

We could change the paradigm. . . . “

Thank you and Bravo Dr. Craviotto!

The doctor-patient relationship is just one of many personal relationships under attack today by power elites. All big government programs aim to meddle in personal relationships. They have the teacher-student relationship in their crosshairs, the parent-child relationship, the merchant-customer relationship, the neighbor-to-neighbor relationship. Every personal relationship you experience. That’s what dictators from time immemorial have sought to control. That’s why they silence you through the dictates of “political correctness” which is just another word for coercive persuasion.

By meddling in relationships the cliques that run the bureaucracies usurp our personal power and freedom in order to bloat themselves. In the meantime, they demand we support their habit of getting drunk on power.

All of us need to change the paradigm. We need to “stand up and say we are not going to take it anymore,” as Dr. Craviotto urges his fellow physicians. This means not allowing political thugs and bureaucrats to meddle and interfere with our personal relationships — our relationships with our families, our neighbors, our co-workers, our classmates, our doctors, or anyone else in our personal lives.

Freedom of association is under attack as never before. Preserving it is probably the first — and last — line of defense for all of our other freedoms.

Preserving civil marriage is key, because without it the family can no longer exist autonomously and serve as a wall of separation between the individual and the state. Abolishing it would have huge implications for the survival of freedom of association and all of our personal relationships.

He notes that the takeover of the family was by far the most consequential act of state ownership of the late 20th century. No question about it. A faceless bureaucracy is being substituted for the only bonds that can create a healthy society: family bonds. Steyn also recognizes that we should grieve far more over the waste of lives than the waste of money by this bureaucratic state. Amen to that.

But I’d like to elaborate a little here. The organic family unit — father, mother, child — is really the template for all healthy human relationships. We all know this in our gut. Without the security of the human bonding in a family, something great is lost to any human being who’s been deprived of it. Children end up more isolated and alienated, and they take all of that baggage into adulthood. People become more detached from others if their sole source of “care giving” is a faceless bureaucracy. In a very real sense, the state can then mediate and dictate all human relationships. For example, a poor single mother is less likely to get married if she knows she’ll lose state entitlements. It’s disturbing as we come to realize that nationalizing the family goes hand in hand with abolishing it.

Also, let’s note how the cliques ruling the bureaucracies can’t recognize human potential, creativity, and innovation. Even if they could, they’re hostile to it all. They squander lives and talent. And they’re in the business of squashing love.

Our only choice, in the end, is for each of us to compete with this machine. It sounds daunting, but we must find a way to build a culture that reaches out in human love and understanding to anyone at risk of falling victim to the machine, and even those who already are. I hope to explore in future posts how we might try to do this.